Activision's disgraceful Black Ops 2 marketing campaign.

Activision had the sheer lack of decency to used convicted criminal Oliver North in their fucking marketing campaign. This is the man who lied about exchanging weapons to the Iranians and using the proceeds to bankroll anti-Marxist forces in South America. This man was directly involved in illegally funding guerrillas who would go into villages and kill women and children. And now he's advertising first person shooters for Activision.

This is sick. The fact that some of the game is set when North's was active in his activities (The 1980's) honestly makes it even worse. How this hasn't made any real traction in the gaming press is honestly beyond me. I don't like to mix politics and my games, especially here on Giant Bomb......but some things are just sacred. Oliver North is a disgrace to the uniform and to the country. Activision should know better.

I laughed at the part about US friendly fire from above.

I guess Activision wants to attract the elderly conservative crowd, I'm sure this'll get some play on Hannity's shit now.

Some in the gaming news media actually talked about it back in May.

Notably, Kotaku with a whole slew of stories like this:

http://kotaku.com/5906871/oliver-north-sold-weapons-to-iran-now-hes-selling-call-of-duty

http://kotaku.com/5907854/black-ops-2-chooses-someone-who-failed-the-call-of-duty

http://kotaku.com/5907920/what-does-the-military-think-of-militainment

http://kotaku.com/5908216/the-trouble-with-call-of-dutys-scary-new-war-of-the-future

http://kotaku.com/5913092/call-of-duty-makers-say-controversial-oliver-north-helped-make-their-game-more-authentic

Members of the Contras also imported massive amounts of cocaine into L.A in the early 80's. While the CIA looked the other way.

Why? because Jeff made up his mind about this game from the preview event. Its the COD series and activision GB is going to talk shit about any of this. Whats worse is that this game regardless of quality with get a 4/5 and sell millions.

And for the record i agree 100% with the op and have played a shit tonne of the COD series.

Criminals become consultants all the time. It is odd to make one the face of your marketing campaign, though. Especially, one who is considered a traitor to his own country.

I'm honestly waiting for the levels in the campaign where you get to run with the Contras and burn down villages and "interrogate" communist sympathizers.

Notice how you made an uproarious thread about this?

.... Activision wins.

"What if terrorists could get their hands on this?" 
 
You are the terrorist for creating this, buddy.

Criminals get book/movie deals fairly often. Welcome to America. Money talks.

Why do people take everything so seriously? I almost posted that overused Joker pic but decided against it.

@kmdrkul said:

Notice how you made an uproarious thread about this?

.... Activision wins.

Quick someone take one for the team and post a giant picture of a dick so that this thread gets locked.

game "journalist's" are too busy complaining about booth babes and violence in video games

Why do people take everything so seriously? I almost posted that overused Joker pic but decided against it.

OH GOD SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR CAN BE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS IN A GAME THAT WILL HAVE A CAMPAIGN TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS.

Seriously, get over it.

I am not trying to brush off what he did or anything but gosh, why is there outrage if the man does anything? I have a feeling that anything he does that's publicized would be scrutinized because of his past, as if people would rather he be dead. Again, I am not defending him, but to get upset that he's in your face once again is kinda weird to me.

I don't really mind! I'm still sort of, kind of, maybe halfway excited about Black Ops 2.

@jakob187 said:

OH GOD SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR CAN BE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS IN A GAME THAT WILL HAVE A CAMPAIGN TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS.

Seriously, get over it.

there are plenty of people who know how dirty war can be that haven't committed actual war crimes

The majority of their target demographic has no idea who Oliver North is.

Criminals get book/movie deals fairly often. Welcome to America. Money talks.

There is no "good" in war...

I think it's kinda cool that they got him, actually.

Welcome to last month? This is old news.

I don't really care that much about US's fucked up legal system so it really doesn't bother me. You can hire all the criminals you want but at the end of the day I'm only buying the product, not the marketing system that is behind it. If this COD is good then I might buy it.

@Animasta said:

@jakob187 said:

OH GOD SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR CAN BE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS IN A GAME THAT WILL HAVE A CAMPAIGN TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS.

Seriously, get over it.

there are plenty of people who know how dirty war can be that haven't committed actual war crimes

War crimes are the dirtiest of them all, so it would seem that Oli would be the guy who knows the most about it.

@artgarcrunkle said:

The majority of their target demographic has no idea who Oliver North is.

I would hope that it gives Call of Duty players a reason to look him up and learn...yeah, "learn" and "Call of Duty" just don't go together.

Welcome to last month? This is old news.

I don't really care that much about US's fucked up legal system so it really doesn't bother me. You can hire all the criminals you want but at the end of the day I'm only buying the product, not the marketing system that is behind it. If this COD is good then I might buy it.

@jerseyscum: They talked about it on a Blops II edition of the Bomb Cast a while ago. They didn't seem especially bothered by it.

@jerseyscum: They talked about it on a Blops II edition of the Bomb Cast a while ago. They didn't seem especially bothered by it.

NONONO you missed the memo.

Sexism this week. That was last months controversy!

I don't know, kinda makes sense that they would use someone involved with black operations in the 1980s as a consultant for their game involving, in some part, black operations from the 1980s.

Is this the new "thing" or we can have 2 things at the same time? I'm curious what game will spark the next thing? my bet is on Assassin's Creed III, 2012 the year of the outrage.

Seriously are we just looking for controversy in everything now?

Nothing like controversies to bring out fun generalizations.

@SmilingPig said:

@kmdrkul said:

Notice how you made an uproarious thread about this?

.... Activision wins.

Quick someone take one for the team and post a giant picture of a dick so that this thread gets locked.

So we've moved on from the tired sexism debate right into this eh? Ah, giantbomb.

you should go look into what other shit the CIA and American government has done in the name of obtaining their desired goals.

Ollie North isn't even the worst shit.

@Lunar_Aura said:

@SmilingPig said:

@kmdrkul said:

Notice how you made an uproarious thread about this?

.... Activision wins.

Quick someone take one for the team and post a giant picture of a dick so that this thread gets locked.

AHHAHAHHAHAHA. Good one.

Also, why has no one posted this quick little history lesson?

War Porn. Pretty much it.

@mnzy said:

@NMC2008 said:

Why do people take everything so seriously? I almost posted that overused Joker pic but decided against it.

You can't really get any worse than the crimes he did, tbh. I don't think that's overreacting.

Its really sick how people are willing to talk about how Tomb Raider is degrading to women and how booth babes are an insult to everyone but when someone posts that a major game no the biggest game this year sales wise is being advertised by someone who has actually supported people who have killed, and supperessed women it honestly gets yeah who cares as a response

@jerseyscum: I was about to mock this thread but yeah, that seems fucked right up.

@hoossy said:

@Lunar_Aura said:

@SmilingPig said:

@kmdrkul said:

Notice how you made an uproarious thread about this?

.... Activision wins.

Quick someone take one for the team and post a giant picture of a dick so that this thread gets locked.

AHHAHAHHAHAHA. Good one.

Also, why has no one posted this quick little history lesson?

HA HA HA! This is fucking gold!

I love American Dad.

I think it's brilliant.

A man who has done extremely horrible things is used to advertise a series of games that mostly simulates doing extremely horrible things.

It's the closest we'll get to having an Abu Ghraib level, or a civilian drone strike level or anything to make Call of Duty show that war isn't a Michael Bay movie it's actually a horrible and degrading thing that the US isn't always on the right side for.

You're right, he is a disgrace to the uniform he wore. He's also pretty knowledgable. More than just about anyone else they could get. This isn't supposed to be seen as patriotic. It's all about authenticity. This guy knows some fucking fascinating things and while I detest him as a man who swore an oath I've sworn myself, I'm not going to deny his value as a consultant. It'd be far, far more disgusting if they used someone who had even less of a clue than this guy, if you ask me. I prefer educated guess from a piece of shit like North over some prick who hasn't had the slightest experience.

It's marketing. It causes people to talk about it, which causes them to see the logo at the end and tell others about the name at the end.

@Animasta said:

@jakob187 said:

OH GOD SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR CAN BE IS TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS IN A GAME THAT WILL HAVE A CAMPAIGN TALKING ABOUT HOW DIRTY WAR IS.

Seriously, get over it.

there are plenty of people who know how dirty war can be that haven't committed actual war crimes

Not any of them were as deep into it as he was, and willing to sell out as he is, in all likelihood. Funny thing about warcrimes is they tend to be hidden from the good guys as best as possible. And few of them are as well known as Oliver North. What do you want, the Commandant of the Marine Corps? No one would know his name, or even his bloody position. They MIGHT recognize his face, if they ever watch the news. Which they don't, nine times out of ten.

It's marketing, for a game. So basically be glad this prick is busy putting his ugly mug in commercials for Black Ops when he could be elsewhere spitting his shit.

Also why the fuck does covering a period when he was active make it worse? Things happened then. They were shitty things. Not portraying the period is far from wrong. It's a video game.

It can't change the honorable and selfless sacrifices our serving men and women make every day across the world, and made even when that ass hat was doing the things he did. It won't make more idiots like him. It'll just sell CoD to the folks who need to be sold on it, excite a few who don't, and mess up your hair to get a few more stories pointing right to it.

@jerseyscum said:

Activision had the sheer lack of decency to used convicted criminal Oliver North in their fucking marketing campaign.

Why did I read that as Oliver Stone? Because that makes sense, of course.

I'm more okay to this than Sam Worthington selling Modern Warfare 3.

These are the same people that made a game where you mow down civilians in an air port. Quit acting like this series has any pride left.

@Lunar_Aura said:

@SmilingPig said:

@kmdrkul said:

Notice how you made an uproarious thread about this?

.... Activision wins.

Quick someone take one for the team and post a giant picture of a dick so that this thread gets locked.

Ohohohohohohoho, this pleases me greatly.

Great Commercial, will buy this on steam sale for sure.

Disgrace? That'd be a new Pete Rose baseball game!

(I'd like to see one)